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Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

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desire of Christian princes to maintain their power vis-à-vis the popes led<br />

to a virtual nationalization of the Church in a wide spectrum of European<br />

polities. <strong>The</strong> kings of France and England frequently used their increased<br />

power over their respective national churches to mobilize an extensive array<br />

of religious rites and ceremonies on behalf of troops in the field. <strong>The</strong>se<br />

ceremonies included public masses, liturgical processions, almsgiving, and<br />

special prayers. During the series of wars that he fought against Scotland<br />

in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, King Edward I of England<br />

ordered that every parish priest in the kingdom preach to his congregation<br />

about the justness of this war and then lead the parishioners in public processions<br />

in support of the troops. Edward also ordered the archbishop of<br />

York to offer indulgences to every layman or -woman who would participate<br />

in liturgical rites and pray on behalf of the army in the field. Furthermore,<br />

the English king authorized the service of parish priests as chaplains<br />

in his army for the purpose of celebrating the sacraments in the field and<br />

in garrisons throughout Britain as well as in Edward’s continental holdings.<br />

<strong>The</strong> English royal government also launched a successful effort to free<br />

the chapels in royal fortresses and the priests serving in them from the oversight<br />

of both local bishops and papal authorities. This freedom permitted<br />

English kings to appoint the most suitable candidates to serve as garrison<br />

chaplains, rather than being forced to accept priests belonging to the networks<br />

of episcopal or papal patronage.<br />

King Philip IV of France, King Edward’s leading competitor for leadership<br />

in Europe, also pursued religious policies that allowed him to mobilize<br />

clergy all over his kingdom in support of the French army. Philip issued<br />

frequent edicts ordering his bishops to hold special religious services on behalf<br />

of troops in the field and requiring that special litanies be celebrated<br />

in royal abbeys for the same purpose. Philip also commissioned an entire<br />

series of sermons to be preached across the kingdom in which French military<br />

actions in Flanders were compared to the Maccabean holy wars<br />

against their Hellenic oppressors.<br />

David Bachrach<br />

See also Chivalry; Knights; Orders of Knighthood, Religious; Orders of<br />

Knighthood, Secular<br />

References<br />

Aeneas, Tacticus, Asclepiodotus, Onasander. 1923. Cambridge: Harvard<br />

University Press.<br />

Birely, Eric. “<strong>The</strong> Religion of the Roman Army: 1895–1977.” Aufstieg und<br />

Niedergang der Römischen Welt II Principat 16, no. 2: 1506–1541.<br />

Bull, Marcus Graham. 1993. Knightly Piety and the Lay Response to the<br />

First Crusade: <strong>The</strong> Limousin and Gascony, ca. 970–1100. Oxford:<br />

Oxford University Press.<br />

Erdmann, Carl. 1977. <strong>The</strong> Origin of the Idea of Crusade. Translated by Marshall<br />

W. Baldwin and Walter Goffart. Princeton: Princeton University Press.<br />

454 Religion and Spiritual Development: Ancient Mediterranean and Medieval West

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